Student launches new drink for charity
By Aoife Brophy | Nov 16 2010
A group of former UCD Engineering students have founded a company called “AquAid” which aims to donate ten cents of every bottle of water it sells to charity.Eoin Dunleavy founded the company while he was a student in UCD. It has expanded from selling to local businesses in Dublin to selling right across the country and will soon be selling on the UCD campus itself. The drink will be sold on the UCD campus within the coming weeks in both the Insomnia outlets on campus, which are located in the Quinn School and the Conway Institute.The bottle labels are to be colour coded, with each colour representing a different charity. Pink represents breast cancer, blue represents children in need, green represents environmental charities and orange represents muscular disorder charities for conditions such as MS.Pink is already synonymous with charities for breast cancer research. Breast cancer currently affects around 1,700 people annually in Ireland.Irish children’s charities work to provide better living conditions and education to members of society from underprivileged backgrounds.The green bottle supports environmental causes such as protecting our natural resources, recycling and raising awareness about global warming.Dunleavy hopes to expand the company even further in the coming months: “At the moment, we are targeting fellow students particularly. We supply students’ unions, however we eventually wish to target a much wider range of people including working people and the older generations. This will come hand in hand with expansion of AquAid, as it becomes available in your local shop around the corner.”Great emphasis is to be put on local charities by the campaign. In addition, the company asks that its customers nominate charities they want AquAid to support.The company will present cheques to each charity at the end of the month in Dublin and in other counties, so that customers know that they are making a difference locally.According to its website, www.aquaid.ie, the company’s goal is “to turn our customers into everyday philanthropists without them making drastic changes to their everyday lives”.Dunleavy told The University Observer that he is anxious for UCD students to promote AquAid in their local areas: “If you’re in a shop and they don’t haveAquAid, tell them to get it. Not only will it quench your thirst, but [also] you’regiving back to your local community. And plus, it boosts the shop’s localimage for stocking it. Its a win win.”